Police said Del Castillo, 36, was shot in front of the Chili's restaurant at Mill Avenue and University Drive on the morning of September 19 after lunging at officers with a box cutter.

According to a police spokesman, the officer who shot Del Castillo was responding to calls about a man threatening people on Mill Avenue with a knife or box cutter.

Of the friends we've spoken to, none of them knows what Del Castillo was doing that morning.

But did police really need to shoot a man who was wielding a knife? Isn't there a reason officers carry Tasers?

We're told Del Castillo was well-known in the local rave scene (as evidenced by his friends' comments, and the pacifier in the photo above). A memorial planned for Tempe is in the works, with DJs, club lighting, and all.

Both the shooting and Del Castillo's alleged actions seem out of the ordinary. Many times, people shot by police have had several run-ins with law enforcement before. State and county court records show Del Castillo's most serious run-ins with law enforcement are traffic tickets.

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The day before Del Castillo was shot, Maricopa County Bill Montgomery noted that police shootings are on the rise in the county, as he counted 41 this year, which presumably makes Del Castillo's shooting number 42. There were 48 police shootings all of last year, Montgomery said.

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